Advances in network technology and demands for software and systems capable of taking full advantage of the advancements are growing. Many organizations dependent on information technology are attempting to manage complex network environments (e.g., distributed environments) that incorporate diverse hardware, software, applications, networks, and database systems. The devices in a distributed environment may be totally dissimilar from each other. Also, device components of distributed environments often run entirely different operating systems and are entirely independent of each other but strive to cooperate in the sharing of data. The communications protocols used by such distributed environments tend to be industry standards, such as Systems Network Architecture (“SNA”) and TCP/IP. Still, modes of cooperation between networked devices are far from optimal. Thus, there has been an increasing demand for software and systems capable of fully integrating and optimizing use of these disparate components. Moreover, it is desirable for these integrated systems, documents, and software to be hardware independent, support multiple users, and be based on a distributed architecture.
One area in which the resources of a distributed environment are not efficiently utilized is in the realm of web-based image retrieval, manipulation, and utilization. Presently, systems and services exist which allow web users to extract and share various imaging information over the Internet.
On-line information systems typically include one computer system (the server) that makes information available so that other computer systems (the clients) can access the information. The server manages access to the information, which can be structured as a set of independent on-line services. The server and client communicate via messages conforming to a communication protocol and sent over a communication channel such as a computer network or through a dial-up connection. Typical uses for on-line services include document viewing, electronic commerce, directory lookup, on-line classified advertisements, reference services, electronic bulletin boards, document retrieval, electronic publishing, keyword searching of documents, technical support for products, and directories of on-line services, among others. The service may make the information available free of charge, or for a fee, and may be on publicly accessible or private computer systems.
The user of an on-line service typically uses a program on the client system, such as a web browser, to access the information managed by the on-line service. Possible user capabilities include viewing, searching, downloading, printing, and filing the information managed by the server.
Another area where distributed sharing and accessing of information would be beneficial involves multi-function printing devices (MFP). A multi-function printing device is a device that functions as a printer, but may also function in another capacity. For instance, MFPs capable of copying, faxing, scanning, and printing are often used in office environments. Furthermore, MFPs are often used to copy documents and images. Typically, when a user copies a document, the image is not stored. Therefore, in order to make additional copies, an MFP, or a traditional copier, must recopy either the original image or a duplicate image. Unfortunately, sometimes copies are copied, thus resulting in a loss in fidelity of the image. If subsequent copies are then copied, additional losses in fidelity occur. Thus, it may be desirable to reduce or eliminate the loss in fidelity of additional copies created on an MFP.
Scanning information previously scanned by the MFP is repetitive and inefficient. Duplications of images that have been previously scanned results in unnecessary use as well as compounding scheduling difficulties associated with MFP resources. Thus, it may be desirable to reduce or eliminate duplicative scanning of substantially identical images.
In addition, copies from different original images cannot be easily integrated after printing. For instance, collations from different images and sources must be assembled for copying. Often, collations are difficult to assemble and cannot be retrieved easily. Minor changes or additions may also cause a complete reorganization of a collation. In addition, it may be desirable to form a collation from disparate copy jobs or parts of copy jobs that requires a reorganization of multiple copy jobs to form the desired collation. Thus, it may be desirable to facilitate creation and modification of collations using an MFP.
Limitations and problems associated with MFPs largely prevent users from gaining possible benefits of MFPs with distributed imaging capability. In addition, hardware and software independence is desirable, because networks as well as the Internet may comprise diverse computer platforms and systems.
It is desirable to provide MFP users with the utmost functionality available. Therefore, it would be of current interest to provide methods and a multifunction peripheral for sharing imaging information between web-based services and devices in a distributed environment. More specifically, the present invention relates to apparatus and methods for sharing imaging information between web-based services and MFPs.